Star's Blood (Lines Universe) She did not swim, for there was no water in this Deep. Nor did she fly, for there was no air. There was only light within the darkness, forever and infinite Light and Darkness. There was not even she, nor her thoughts, nor even the time in which thoughts could flow. Even the distant stars were timeless, and they were one with the light, and with her. She could abide here forever, and, indeed, did so. Every instant was eternity, and she was home. Time passed. “Return,” a quiet but insistent voice called from the Shallows, and she did so. With less practice, she would have felt regret or frustration from having been brought back to normal consciousness, but she felt glorious, dazzling Nothing still within her, but fading into the sharp-edged shadows and lights of the Shallows, in this case, the interior of a starship. She found herself in a hold lit by candles dancing with the golden-red color of cool stars, surrounded by metallic surfaces reflecting these lights over and over, a galaxy that was, for a moment, as beautiful and complex as that outside the ship, out in the Deep... read more